Recently, vehicles which are equipped with a power storage device (for example, such as a secondary battery or a capacitor) and run using driving power generated from electric power stored in the power storage device have been attracting attention as environmentally friendly vehicles. Such vehicles include, for example, electric cars, hybrid cars, fuel cell cars, and the like. Moreover, techniques of charging a power storage device mounted in these vehicles using a commercial power source having high power generation efficiency have been proposed.
In hybrid cars, vehicles in which charging of a vehicle-mounted power storage device from a power source external to the vehicle (hereinafter also simply referred to as an “external power source”) can be performed (hereinafter also referred to as “external charging”) as in electric cars have been known. For example, a so-called “plug-in hybrid car” is known, in which a power storage device can be charged from a general household power source by connecting a power outlet provided in a house and a charging inlet provided in a vehicle using a charging cable. Thereby, an increase in fuel consumption efficiency of hybrid cars can be expected.
For a charging cable used for external charging using such a charging cable, a cord reel may be used for taking up and housing the charging cable when external charging is not performed.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2003-244832 (PTL 1) discloses a technique of limiting a charging current or inhibiting charging in an electric car that performs charging using a cord provided in a car body, in accordance with a taken-up state of the take-up cord for charging a battery.